Lakes picked apart by Miners

September 15, 2012

BESSEMER - It was Friday night football under the lights and for the first time this season, the Gogebic Miners played a home game. And what a game they played.

Gogebic dominated in all phases of the contest and rolled over Lake Linden 39-12 in a Great Western Conference battle on Friday night.

"It's a huge win for our program," Miner coach Mark Mazzon said. "Year in, year out, Lake Linden has a great program, but we took it right to them tonight. I thought we could play this good. It was a great win for the boys, the school and the community."

Lake Linden coach Andy Crouch acknowledged that the the 2012 Gogebic team is legitimate but felt his team needs to play better.

"We didn't make the plays we should have," Crouch said. "We had a chance to make tackles on their three long plays but didn't do it. At the same time, Gogebic is a fine football team. They executed the way we wanted to and we couldn't slow them down. Best of luck to Coach Mazzon and his team. They deserve it."

The game looked like a matchup of evenly matched teams, since both squads had two victories to go along with a lop-sided defeat. The game looked to a be a measuring stick of where each team stood as the season reached its midway point. The Miners will only play eight games this season.

Gogebic left no doubt as to which was the better team on Friday night. The Miners rolled up 425 total yards on offense and Caleb Winkler proved he is a dangerous runner with speed, moves and cutback ability. He ran for three touchdowns and totaled 187 yards on 14 carrries.

After falling behind 13-0 after a quarter, LL-H pilled back within a score on Mitchel Kumpula's 25-yard touchdown pass to Konrad Klein, but the Lakes gave up two touchdown drives in the last 5:19 of the half to trail 25-6 at the break.

Kumpula hit Tylor Rickard with a 42-yard pass early in the second half, but the Miners added back-to-back touchdowns for an insurmountable margin.

The Lakes (2-2) were led in rushing by Cody Kumpula with 45 yards on seven carries. Rickard added 42 yards on 10 attempts. Mitchel Kumpula threw for 123 yards on 6-of-12 passing.